Kaleidoscope is the name of Krys Vita’s delightful homestead region, which invites visitors to Explore the peaceful tranquillity of both country and nature. visit the two homes, cuddle under the stars. visit the beautiful church or just relax and let magical feel of the sim lift your spirits. And when I say a visit will make you want to do precisely that, I’m not exaggerating.
Currently caught in the grip of winter, the region offers a rural setting on which snow is falling, the sky leaden with clouds, the trees raising bared branches towards it. From the landing point, a country track leads inland, border on either side by fence-bound fields. The trees lining the track are frosted white, and have lights hanging from their boughs. Walk between them and you’ll come to a fork in the track. Here sits a little cottage, Santa’s throne outside, the track sweeping left and right around it.
Go left, and the track will take you past a barn where horses munch on the grass poking up through the snow, then onwards to the steep banks of a watery channel separating a small island and chapel from the rest of the region, a single wooden bridge offering access to them.
Take the track to the right and it will lead you past a frozen pond on one side, the bulk of a house looming through the snow mist on the other. Further along, and across the long grass, sits a large wooden gazebo offering a place to dance and / or play the piano and cello. further on, the track sweeps back towards the chapel island before arriving back at the little cottage once more.
Livestock are much in evidence here, furthering the feel of this being a distant farm hidden from the world by the winter snow. As well as the horses, sheep and cattle graze peacefully, while elsewhere rabbits might be found and geese fly overhead.
Throughout the region there are places to sit and contemplate, or if you are with someone special, enjoy a cuddle. For the more active, a wooden deck over the frozen pond has a sign offering ice skates, although you might have to get close to it to click it through the snow (or you can click CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-2 to temporarily turn the latter off – although a few other things might vanish with it). You may need to join the region group, tho, to have rezzing right to unpack them – and this may well go for throwing the snowballs on offer from buckets as well.
Kaleidoscope is a region which is beautiful in both its design and simplicity, offering a charming winter’s break for those wishing to enjoy snow, wanders and cuddles. Both the house and the cottage on the region are open to all, so there is no risk of trespassing. Photogenic and peaceful, and currently full of good cheer for the season,
Kaleidoscope also has a Flickr pool for those wishing to add their pictures. and if you do visit, please consider a donation at the landing point to help towards keeping the region available for everyone to enjoy.
Emily Chang from Bloomberg Business discusses the future of VR with Ebbe Altberg and AltspaceVR CEO Eric Romo (via Bloomberg Business)
On Monday, December 7th, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg appeared alongside AltspaceVR’s CEO and founder, Eric Romo on Bloomberg Business with Emily Chang, to discuss How to Find Realistic Timeline for Virtual Reality. In the interview, which lasts just under 5 minutes, the three discussed the potential of VR including.
The foundation for the interview is a report by TrendForce which proclaims the VR market will be worth around US $70 billion by 2020, with some US $20 billion coming from hardware purchases and US $50 billion from software and applications. It’s the latest in a bullish series of predictions on the future of the technology, many of which have gone unchallenged – and even then, TrendForce believe their prediction is an “understatement”. But how likely is it?
US $70 billion represents a tenfold increase in market worth for an industry slated to generate around US $6.7 billion in 2016. However you look at it, that’s a pretty steep growth curve. Both Ebbe and Eric see it as “reasonable”, with the latter citing the idea that a lot of companies which might not be considered as “VR companies” seeing a value proposition in the technology and leveraging it within their business model. In particular, he refers to the expected upsurge in VR as a paradigm shift comparable to that witnessed with the smartphone revolution.
Others are more cautious, as is the case with Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe, who is shown commenting:
We definitely believe the mass market … there’s going to be a lot of adopters, early adopters, of VR. but if you’re looking at the kind of smartphone scale, you know, billions of users out there, that’s going to take a long time.
While not nay-saying the potential of VR, other analysts view the TrendForce report as being unhelpful. When approached by Tweak Town, for example, Moor Insights & Strategy’s VR Analyst Anshel Sag, had this to say:
$70 billion by 2020 is more than extremely ambitious, $70 billion assumes that VR is a mature and mainstream market. There is no way that VR will explode into such a mature market within effectively 4 years. While I am extremely optimistic about the future of VR, such projections do nothing but hurt the future of VR by setting unrealistic expectations. There are no players in any part of the market that could turn this industry into a $70 billion industry in 4 years.
During the Bloomberg discussion, there is an acceptance that VR needs to overcome certain technical hurdles to gain more of a mass-market appeal. Certainly, these issues – cost, reliance on high-end supporting technology, etc. – are real, and doubtless will be overcome. But they aren’t the single issue facing VR in terms of its adoption.
Like it or not, VR is actually an isolating experience. Sure, you can in theory see anything, go anywhere, etc., while using it. But you do so at the expense of pretty much cutting you off from the rest of the world around you. It curtails your ability to properly interact with the things around you, to multi-task, etc. For many people and situations, even those seen as potential VR use-cases, that could curb the appeal.
There’s something else as well to be considered when discussing VR and its potential; what might be called the elephant in the room: augmented reality.
While AR is off to a slower start that VR, it is fair to say that it has the potential to reach into many of those markets and use-cases as seen to be ideal for VR, and offer a more attractive option in doing so. Initial AR systems are far more self-contained and portable; those on the horizon promise a wealth of capabilities (up to and including VR). More to the point, they do not isolate users from the world around them, something which could make AR far more practical and appealing for everyday use in the house, at work, on the street, etc.
By the time VR is really in a position to offer low-cost, lightweight systems freed from requiring high-end computing power, it could be facing stiff competition from AR for many of the markets seen as “ideal” for its use (image via CastAR)
So, it could be said that AR appears to be a far more natural proposition for widespread adoption and use, becoming a far more natural evolution from (and with) mobile and smartphone technologies. Hence why some put AR’s market worth as being in excess for US $100 billion by 2020.
Which is not to say that VR doesn’t have a place in the future. There are very niche and compelling cases where it will gain momentum. But whether it will ever reach the level of adoption comparable to the smartphone, as is so often cited, is questionable. There is no reason why, that for many of those potentially uses of VR outside of entertainment and gaming, AR might not offer a far better value proposition for take-up when compared to VR, leading to the latter being subsumed by it well before it has the opportunity to reach the scale of growth predicted for it.
You can catch the Bloomberg video by flowing the link towards the top of this piece, or you can catch the audio below.
When you’re in a virtual world, it’s not just your avatar, it’s not just the storyline. It’s the furniture in the room, it’s the building around you, it’s the trees you see. That’s what makes immersion possible; that’s what i create, an environmental space.
These are the words of Isla Gealach, known throughout Second Life for her in-world brand of Cheeky Pea, which open the 34th segment of The Drax Files World Makers. But this is not simply an examination of another’s creator’s on-line life and activities in Second Life; anyone who is familiar with this outstanding series of video shorts by Draxtor Despres will know there is far more of a story to tell here.
While Isla’s creative is a focus of the segment, it shares the time very much with her physical world life, because the two share an inseparable intertwining which demonstrates that – contrary to idea that our on-line lifestyles are increasingly isolating us from the “real” (whatever that is) – there are situations and circumstances which occur every single day where people who know one another on-line are drawn closer together, and that that for some, it evolves into a relationship which spans both the virtual and the physical.
Ewan Mureaux
For Isla, this is clearly demonstrated in her relationship with Ewan Mureaux. Starting out as colleagues collaborating together on Second Life products, Isla designing and creating them with Ewan scripting them whilst also working on SL land deals, the two of them struck up a friendship which eventually led to a real-life meeting which evolved into a relationship spanning both the physical world and the virtual.
In some ways, their story almost sounds like an office romance, with both Isla and Ewan noting that the time they spent working together was as natural as being colleagues working together in the same environment, even if they were actually miles apart and (at that time) only seeing one another through their digital personas. Like work colleagues, they came to know one another working together and that naturally lead to spending time in-world together at social events, and so things grew between them, just as relationships naturally grow between people in any aspect of the physical world.
Given this background, both Isla and Ewan are keenly aware of how digital relationships inform us differently when compared to those occurring purely in the physical world; a fact which can lead to people reaching a greater depth with one another than might otherwise be the case. “Second Life can cut through societal constraints,” Ewan notes, “And it gets more to the heart of who you are.” Isla then adds, “You get a feel for the personality first.”
Isla’s Cheeky Pea brand offers many items for house, garden and environment, and is a favourite among many SL users
It is this ability to make emotional connections which can be as genuine as anything we experience through any other medium, which Isla sees as the real power behind Second Life. It’s a view I agree with fully, because above everything else – the democratising of content, the freedom of creative expression, the myriad of things we can find to do in-world – ultimately, Second Life brings people together. It doesn’t matter if this is as friends, companions, or lovers, as couples or in groups; the platform allows us to form relationships and connections with other which are quite unique and with the power to outlast anything which might be experience through less immersive on-line social environments.
Within this broader story, we do also gain insight into what it means to be an effective successful creator in Second Life. And contrary to the hype which spread about the platform being a place of instant riches which grew up around Second Life back in 2006/7 and which did much to fuel its rapid growth, the reality is far different – as every content creator knows, and Isla encapsulates perfectly:
The illusion that I sit around in my pyjamas all day and eat cake and look at the sky and get inspiration is … not true. My job requires a lot of self-discipline, which I never thought I was capable of. I’m working from the time my daughter goes to school to the time she gets home, when i have to spend the time with her, doing her homework. Sometimes, when I’m on a deadline, I’m working until she wakes up! I don’t have that luxury of not completing things.
Second Life can greatly enrich our virtual lives and our physical lives
However, it is in the way in which Second Life has the power and ability to hugely enrich both our virtual and physical lives where this segment retains its power. Isla and Ewan’s relationship is almost a personification of the ideal that Second Life is a “shared experience” – although not at all in the manner the Lab might have imagined when applying the term to the platform.
Between them, and with Isla’s daughter, who gets to participate in the creative process as well, Isla and Ewan demonstrate very clearly home the platform can bring people together, presenting new opportunities for them to grow on both sides of the digital divide. In this, they are not unique among Second Life users, and there will be others watching this segment and identifying fully with it.
Such is the power of Second Life, that it really shouldn’t be seen as a substitute for the physical world as some who fail to understand the platform and those like it would all to quickly opt to dismiss it. The truth is that Second Life actually does more to eradicate the digital divide for many of us, allowing us free motion, from the physical to the virtual and back again, enhancing our lives in both. This is something Isla clearly understands and appreciates, as she notes in closing out the segment::
I think that in a world where virtual goods and services are becoming more and more important, we shouldn’t neglect excitement for the physical world in our kids. There are so many things you can do in your community; simple family walks, explore your town [and] its history.
At the same time, it’s not helpful to frame virtual reality as an escape. Because look, i live near Edinburgh, which is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and I still love to go into Second Life, have fun and express my creativity. You can have a balance of both, right?
Absolutely.
Second Life presents so many ways for us to share in experiences and activities together, on both sides of the screen
Given the subject matter of the segment, The Drax Files World Makers #34 takes a slight departure from previous segments. In part, it reverts to the approach to the early shows in the series in which he appears in his digital self, asking questions and providing an initial thrust to the video. However, with this segment, we also see a very subtle shift, as digital Drax is also joined by physical Drax.
By doing this, he adds a gently underlining of the central theme to the piece, again indicating how, for many of us, our identities – physical and virtual – are one in the same, with each informing and enriching the other.
Note: apologies to subscribers who may have received multiple notices about this post, some of which may have had invalid links when clicked. WordPress SNAFU’d on me when first published, and caused additional issues when trying to correct.
The Ghost Town – a MadPea mystery game aimed at new SL users, launching soon at the Firestorm Gateway
During the recent soft launch of the Firestorm Gateway, I reported on the news that MadPea would be joining the Firestorm team as a partner, providing free-to-play games in order to help new users engage with Second Life.
These games are intended to be Experiences-led, and demonstrate some of the many activities those new to Second Life can expect to find in-world, as then learn to find their way around – thus fitting in with the overall thrust of the Firestorm Gateway regions, which offer a range of activities and attractions for incoming new users, as will as practical guidance and support for understanding the viewer and getting to grips with general interactions, etc.
The MadPea team have now announced the first of these games will be launching on December 19th, 2015. Called The Ghost Town. It will see players tasked with investigating the recent disappearance of local fisherman Big Jimmy. Guided by his journal and equipped with a special camera, players follow the clues left by a mind gone mad and discover the terrible truth behind Big Jimmy’s recent activities. One they have completed the game, player will be rewarded with prizes.
It is with regards to the latter point that MadPea are seeking the support of 20 Second Life Creators, as the official blog post from the team explains:
We’re looking for 20 stores to collaborate with us by providing a themed prize for the players. In return your brand and prizes will be promoted by both MadPea and Firestorm and you’ll be potentially promoting yourselves to your customers of the future before anyone else.
In particular, MadPea are looking for prizes which will help new users practically enhance their Second Life experience, and so are particularly hoping to hear from creators of wearable items such as skins, mesh body parts and accessories, hair, clothing, avatar accessories, pets, wearable vehicles, companions, AOs etc.
Creators wishing to indicate their willingness to be involved in the game and offer prizes should complete in full The Ghost Townprize donation application form, and to do so no later than Saturday, December 12th. Those stores / creators selected by the team will be contacted directly shortly thereafter with information on how to proceed.
In the meantime, if you require more information about becoming a vendor, please contact Tichelle Teebrook in world. For more information about MadPea in general, or their collaboration with the Firestorm team, please contact Kess Crystal in world, or via kess-at-madpeagames.com.
There was no Main (SLS) channel deployment on Tuesday, December 8th, following after the update planned for release in week #49 had to be cancelled when a simulator crash bug was uncovered.
On Wednesday, December 9th, all three RC channels should receive the same new server maintenance package, which comprises simulator crash fixes (including one for the issue found during the original final testing of the package in week #49) and implements feature request BUG-10192: adding constant OBJECT_OMEGA to llGetObjectDetails(), so that it can return a vector matching what is returned with llGetOmega(), allowing applications to determine an object’s rate and axis of rotation.
Viewer Updates
On Monday, December 7th, the Valhalla RC viewer, which comprises the Chromium embedded Framework implementation intended to replace LLQTwebkit for handling media in Second Life, was updated to version 4.0.0.308641. This update includes 13 additional fixes when compared to the previous Valhalla RC version:
MAINT-5846 – MOAP audio is too quiet
MAINT-5849 – MOAP does not run if parcel media texture is on same face
MAINT-5852 – Parcel media url can be hijacked from parcel to parcel
MAINT-5855 – media navigation bars overlap all floaters in viewer
MAINT-5856 – toolbar search can be interrupted early get stuck on blank page
MAINT-5859 – Terms of Service are not loading in Linux only
MAINT-5896 – Add support for viewing PDF files in the viewer
MAINT-5901 – Click-to-Walk should work through transparent objects
MAINT-5902 – Qihoo 360 Anti-virus blocks SLPlugin.exe and login page web content
MAINT-5909 – Japanese can’t be input in CEF
MAINT-5911 – Pressing “return” (or “enter”) no longer performs a search
MAINT-5941 – Default flash to on by default.
Other Items
Interest List and “Ghost” Prims
there have been reports at the last couple of Simulator User Group meetings about “ghost prim” – objects which have been deleted / killed via llDie, continuing to render viewer-side, even though they have been removed by the simulator, requiring a right-click to remove them from the viewer’s outlook on the world.
Problems like this aren’t new, and many have encountered them, particularly since the core of the changes made to the Interest List. However, positively identifying what is going wrong where in the code, and why it is going wrong has been proving difficult, as the has not been a consistent means of reproducing the problem. However, it now appears that just such a consistent means of encountering the issue has been found, and a JIRA raised. Hopefully, this means that the Lab will be able to dig a little deeper into things and at least rectify the problem for some of the situations where “ghost prims” can be encountered.
Join / Leave Group Failures
There have been significant issues with people attempting to join or leave groups recently – see BUG-10869. The problems are apparently caused by a back-end database overload within the group services,
There are many issues in handling large groups which can be problematic: number of members, number of inactive users, impact of changes to things like established group roles (and the numbers of group members they affect), and so on. These are all largely down to the way the back-end group services were originally designed, something which is not the easiest of issues to overcome, as Simon Linden explained at the at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday, December 8th:
It’s a long story, actually, but comes down to scaling issues and design. It doesn’t make sense that we basically treat a group with 100k people in it the same as 10 people . There are some things that just take more time with a large group.
However, Simon is looking into the problems, as he did with the issues of group chat earlier in the year, which so that side of things dramatically improved, but there is currently no ETA on when any fix / fixes might be issued.
No Change Window
Subject to official confirmation by the Lab, week #51 (week commencing Monday, December 14th) is liable to mark the last week in which simulator and viewer releases will be made ahead of the Christmas / New Year “no change window” coming into force, which will probably remain in place until approximately the week commencing Monday, January 4th, 2016.
The no change window is intended to ensure the grid and viewer are both relatively stable, so that the Lab can offer support, engineering and operations staff time off over the holiday period to be with their families and friends.
Ty Tenk and Truck Meredith, owners of the marvellous Calas Galadhon park lands, have once again brought something very special to Second Life in the form of their season Christmas region. And this year taking the theme of White Christmas, it is something very special, even by Ty and Truck’s remarkable standards.
As suggested by the name, the land is blanketed in white, a rich carpet of snow which also clings to the trees and bushes even as more falls from the darkening skies overhead. Sleighs await visitors arriving in the region, offering a ground-level tour – and Caitlyn and I thoroughly recommend taking one to start your explorations. The sleighs will take you around the region at a gentle pace, following snow-covered track around and through the island before depositing you at the Christmas Pavilion.
But that’s not the end of things; the Pavilion is open to visitors, and offers a comfortable room in which to sit before a roaring fire, while the Christmas tree awaits across the hall. Outside, and down the slope, a frozen lake and ice-skating await, while the paths and tracks offer plenty of opportunities to wander on foot and to find little spots to sit and watch.
And that’s not the end of things either. A short distance away from the pavilion sits a balloon ride. This will take visitor up, up, and away into the cold winter skies, all the way to the North Pole, by way of mountain passes and snow filled valleys, all the way to Santa’s HQ. Here, reindeer wander the fields below the village or keep an eye on visitors while Santa and his little helpers take a bit of a break between making toys and gifts and starting on their 24-hour delivery round.
While Santa and Co may be absent, that doesn’t stop people peeking inside the workshop, dormitory, local hostelry and Santa’s house, or from visiting the launch point for the sleigh of sleighs, and from even sneaking a little cuddle while sitting in it. And once a visit is done, a nearby teleport stone will provide the way back to the pavilion.
In fact, for those in a hurry, teleport stones are scattered around White Christmas to help make getting around easier – but I would venture to suggest it’s better to avoid them and make your way on foot or via the balloon (in the case of getting to the North Pole), because there is so much to see and plenty of Ty and Truck’s wonderful touches and little visual jokes. And of course, there’s also the reindeer tour – and don’t forget to put the festive audio stream on as well when visiting. Specially put together by Truck and Ty, it is the perfect backing for a visit!
I could say more – but the joy of the Calas Galadhon seasonal regions is visiting and exploring them, so I’ll let you do that for yourselves, and instead leave you with a little video after the links.
Kaleidoscope (Flickr) – click any image for full size
Kaleidoscope (Flickr) – click any image for full size
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 